Eph. i. 15 — 20. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers ; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory , may give unto you the Spirit of ivisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him : the eyes of your understanding being en- lightened ; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to tis-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead.
WE are told by our blessed Lord, that however great the pains of parturition may be, a woman re- membereth no more her anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. Yet if the mother, watching the child from month to month, should see no growth in his bodily stature, nor any improvement in his intellectual faculties, her joy would soon be turned into grief, and she would account the death of the child a greater blessing than its birth. Somewhat similar to these are the feelings of a minister towards those who have been born to God through his minis- trations. Like " the angels in heaven, he rejoices over every sinner that is brought to repentance :" but if his subsequent care and labour be attended with no benefit to his converts, he will feel much pain and sorrow on their account : he will " travail, as it were, in birth a second time, till he see Christ completely formed in them." To see them walking in the truth, is the one object of his desire, and the summit of his joya : and it is only when they stand fast in the faith, that he has a real enjoyment of his life*. How full of complaints was the Apostle Paul, when the people to whom he had ministered did not make their pro- fiting to appear0. On the contrary, he quite exulted when he heard of their growth in faith and loved. But in nothing did he shew his anxiety for their wel- fare more, than in his unwearied intercessions in their behalf.
The prayer which he offered for the Church at Ephesus, evinces clearly,
I. That the Spirit, as a Spirit of wisdom and revela- tion, may be obtained by all —
What was sought on behalf of all the Christians at Ephesus, may certainly be expected by Christians in every age and place —
1. We need the Spirit as much as they did in the Apostles' days —
a 3 John, ver. 4. b 1 Thcss. iii. 8.
c 1 Cor. iii. 1—3. Gal. iii. 1. and iv. 11, 19, 20. Heb. v. 12.
J 2 Thcss. i. 3, 4.
2095.] the spirit's influences. 279
[If we are unconverted, our eyes are blind e, our souls are deadf, yea we are incapable of receiving or knowing the things of the Spirit, because we have not that spiritual discernment, whereby alone they can be discerned s If we are con- verted, still we are in need of fresh supplies of the Spirit, as much as the Ephesian converts were. It is " by the Spirit only that we can know the things which have been freely given to us of GodV The Apostles not only had been con- verted, but had enjoyed the public and private instructions of their Divine Master for nearly four years : yet after his resur- rection he " opened their understandings to understand the Scriptures V' and on the day of Pentecost gave them his Spirit in a more abundant measure, " to guide them into all truth V It is by repeated communications of the same Spirit that we also are to obtain a deeper insight into the things of God. We find oftentimes, even after we have been enlightened, that the written word is only to us as " a dead letter ;" and that unless the Spirit shine upon it, we learn no more from it than from a dial when the sun is hid behind a cloud.